There’s new research which sheds light on the best way to treat insomnia, and it doesn’t involve medications. This study shows that an approach to insomnia called cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT, is more effective than sleeping pills in treating chronic insomnia.

It’s not unusual for Joanne Butler to battle with her bed, lose and end up working at
3 o’ clock in the morning. “Every night at 3 o’clock I just wake up. Then I sit up wide awake, ready to start working. And I can’t fall back asleep no matter what I do,” says Joanne.
Joanne is in very good company, as more than one out of every three Americans -35%, to be exact- report problems with insomnia every single night, according to a 2002 poll done by the National Sleep Foundation.
A new study in the Archives of Internal Medicine compares the popular sleeping pill Ambien, a non-drug approach called cognitive behavioral treatment, and the two in combination to see which treats insomnia most effectively.
As an insomnia treatment, cognitive behavioral treatment proved to be the best.
Cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT treatment of insomnia, involves teaching people how to practice what’s called good sleep hygiene- using the bed only for sleep for example, and not to sit and read in it -and it involves relaxation techniques, specifically, how not to stress out about not falling asleep.
Dr. Stacia Weiber, Director of Sleep Medicine at Mt. Sinai Medical Center in New York says, “Good sleep hygiene means that you go to bed the same time every night. You get up the same time every morning. This includes weekends and vacations. People develop a ritual before they go to bed. They brush their teeth, they comb their hair and they put on their pajamas. That type of ritual helps prepare a person mentally for good sleep. ”
The study found Ambien cut the amount of time it took for subjects to fall asleep by about a third. Treating insomnia with cognitive behavioral therapy cut that time it took to fall asleep by more than half, and the benefits lasted long-term. Once the individuals stopped taking the medicine, the insomnia returned.
“Sleeping pills are generally short term use. They are not the final answer for insomnia,” states Dr. Weiber.
Here are a few things you can do yourself to give yourself a better night’s sleep:
• Go to bed at the same time, and wake up at the same time each day.
• Use the bed only for sleep.
• If you can’t fall asleep after 20 minutes, get up and go to another room, and return to bed when sleepy. Don’t lay there worrying about not falling asleep.
• When out of the bedroom, do a quiet, relaxing activity, such as reading a book. Don’t watch TV, as the images can be stimulating and the light from the television can make one more awake.
• Make sure the bedroom is dark and quiet, and the bed is comfortable.
• And avoid caffeinated beverages, and even things like uncaffeinated drinks and coffee which still contain some caffeine.
Perhaps for Joanne, cognitive behavioral therapy, or at least a little better sleep hygiene might keep her from being such a diligent worker at 3 am. “I would be willing to do it. It would definitely improve the quality of my life if I could get good nights sleep because it’s really killing me right now,” says Joanne.

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